Channel management solutions (such as mySAP CRM Channel Management) are computer applications that allow brand owners to manage their indirect partner channel, i.e., independently operating external business partners, known as channel partners, that market, sell, and/or service the brand owner's products. For those channel partners, a partner portal provides access to data and processes of the brand owner's Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) system.
Prior to the present invention, however, it has not been possible to store information about a channel partner's and the channel partner's individual employees' responsibilities. Because of this, brand owners have not been able to (a) model a channel partner's and the channel partner's employees' responsibilities and (b) find the best-fit channel partner and channel partner's employee for a “job” (e.g., processing a forwarded sales lead or opportunity), according to their responsibilities.
A responsibility may be anything business-related that the channel partner and/or employee are assigned to do or are accountable for. For example, a channel partner's responsibility may be to sell widgets in the Northwest U.S., to handle distribution of widgets in Australia, to contact potential buyers of widgets in Europe, etc. A channel partner's employee's responsibility may be to handle accounting for the channel partner's widget sales, to order widgets for the channel partner from the brand owner, etc.
There is a need in the art for a system and method for managing channel partner responsibilities.